{"id":342167,"date":"2026-02-03T09:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T08:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=342167"},"modified":"2026-02-03T09:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T08:10:16","slug":"khameneis-speech-was-not-about-war-it-was-about-fear-of-the-next-uprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-protests\/khameneis-speech-was-not-about-war-it-was-about-fear-of-the-next-uprising\/","title":{"rendered":"Khamenei\u2019s Speech Was Not About War. It Was About Fear of the Next Uprising"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses his forces on June 9, 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three-minute read<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On February\u00a01, 2026, Ali Khamenei, the clerical regime\u2019s supreme leader, stood before a handpicked crowd in Tehran and tried to do what he always does when his system is under pressure: talk big abroad, rewrite reality at home\u2014and just as importantly,\u00a0<\/span>pump morale into a demoralized base<\/span>\u00a0that has watched the nation\u2019s wrath spill into the streets time and again and now sees the regime\u2019s foundations cracking more openly than ever. The most revealing part of his latest speech<\/a> was not the warning about \u201cregional war.\u201d It was his fixation on the protests\u2014his need to rebrand a popular uprising as a \u201ccoup d\u2019etat,\u201d and his unusually blunt admission that it was \u201csuppressed.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the foreign front, he repeated the familiar script. \u201cAmerica should know that if\u00a0it starts a war, this time it will be a regional war,\u201d he said. He claimed, \u201cWe are not the initiator\u201d and \u201cwe do not want to attack any country,\u201d while threatening that \u201cthe Iranian nation, in the face of anyone who attacks and harasses, will deliver a hard punch.\u201d He mocked talk of \u201caircraft carriers\u201d and \u201cplanes,\u201d insisting it was \u201cnot new,\u201d and declaring, \u201cThe Iranian nation should not be scared by these things.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is\u00a0theater. It is meant to project confidence. But his real message was for the inside.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Khamenei called the recent protests \u201csedition,\u201d then let the truth slip: \u201cThe recent sedition was like a coup d\u2019etat\u2014of course, the coup was suppressed.\u201d Read that again. He did not say it \u201cended\u201d or \u201ccalmed down.\u201d He said it was \u201csuppressed.\u201d That is not a defensive posture; it is an admission of crackdown.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Khamenei's desperate call for elite endorsement after #Iran<\/a>'s bloody crackdown exposes regime fractures: silence from insiders, prolonged internet blackout, and fear of ongoing resistance. Analysis by @HakamianMahmoud<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/0zxnoeYkvY<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) January 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n